Happy Hour: South Lake Union double date — Serafina and Cicchetti

HAPPY HOUR |

Serafina is the stellar Italian restaurant that Susan Kaufman opened on Eastlake nearly 20 years ago. Cicchetti is its baby sister, a snack bar that opened in November to much buzz.

Quite the pair they are now, two happy hours connected by a courtyard — Cicchetti for bar snacks and cocktails, its older sibling for shared plates of crispy pork belly and meatballs.

More informal of the two is Cicchetti, though it's hard to feel relaxed when the bar is understaffed and servers look frantic. Some decent $5 happy-hour cocktails, like the bubbly and citrusy Gin Bustle. But I would pay a few bucks more for a drink from Cicchetti's regular list of craft cocktails, most around $7 and $8, better and cheaper than many cocktails served in Belltown and Capitol Hill.

That bar grub? Those golden fries with feta yogurt lack salt. Some decent enough beef jerky to chew on between drinks. But what a pizza — topped with prosciutto and arugula one week, olives, red onions and feta the next week. A thin, crunchy crust, fresh and hot out of the wood-fired oven; the best of its happy-hour offerings.

But Serafina is where you come to eat, and you need to come early to snag a table outside. The happy-hour menu: some salty pork belly on a bed of pickled corn salad and herbs, one of the best pork-belly bar dishes I've tasted in Seattle.

Its signature calamari, naked instead of flour-coated, tasted smokey from being pan-fried, was topped with breadcrumbs and garlic and was lighter and tastier than your deep-fried variety. And here come the veal meatballs, another Serafina specialty, juicy and addictive.

Serafina, 2043 Eastlake Ave E., offers happy hour 4-6 p.m. Mondays-Fridays with $6 small plates and $3-$7 drink specials (206-323-0807 or serafinaseattle.com).

Cicchetti, 121 E. Boston St., offers happy hour 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays with $1-$6 snacks and $3-$5 drink specials (206-859-4155 or serafinaseattle.com/cicchetti/).

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com